Mission After The Fact
by Durgas Dragon
Summary: Seifer and Zell are stuck in a bad mission


**Mission After The Fact **

**_Disclaimer: This is a purely fan-made piece that is using the world and characters from Squaresoft's (Square Enix) _****Final Fantasy VIII _and is made entirely for enjoyment. No financial gain has been made in the making of this piece _**

**_Summery: Seifer and Zell are stuck in a bad mission _**

**_Author's Note: Written for Dezorai. Possible out-of-characterness _**

**_Constructive Criticism is always welcomed _**

**_Published: 6 January 2008 _**

**_Rating: T _**

** "Get out of the way before you blow us both up, you dumb cluck!" Seifer snarled, shoving Zell sharply with his shoulder. **

** "Fuck off!" Zell braced himself and only teetered a little bit. "An' if you don't bug off an' let me work on this, I'm gunna report you for assultin' your ranking officer an' endangerin' the mission!" **

** "You mean you aren't doing that enough?" Seifer smirked, and felt better to see that it was still all he needed to do to get the smaller man riled up. **

** His fist clenched, Zell spun and bounced heatedly. Seifer could _see_ the fighter swallowing the unprofessional insult (and Zell made all attempts to be professional when he led missions) and counting backwards in his head. "Go stand over there, _now_!" He finally barked out, pointing angrily towards the furthest corner from him. **

** "Or what?" Seifer took a step forwards, admitting to only himself he was enjoying just how _normal_ this was. He liked knowing that if anyone else was bothering Zell this way (not that he'd let them—the Chicken Wuss was _his_ to bully), Zell would react the same way. The marshal artist's attitude hadn't changed; he treated Seifer the same way he had before all of _THAT_ went down. He was probably the only person on the entire damn planet who did. **

** Zell scrunched up his face more as he scowled harder. "Or I'll make sure you get stuck with Selphie on her next shoppin' mission, that's what! Not ta mention you'll get inta trouble for bein' insubordinate!" **

** Seifer glared hard before stomping off to the corner indicated. That was rather clever of the little shrimp, he silently acknowledged. The only thing worse than a shopping mission with Selphie was a shopping mission with the Princess's Girlfriend Rinoa. **

** Zell cursed under his breath and fiddled with circuit board and wires. Seifer rolled his eyes, already bored. Since he wasn't allowed to _directly_ piss off the agitated blond… **

** Zell nearly jumped out of his skin at the first loud scraping screech. Seifer bit back a smirk as the little fighter spun. "What the HELL!!" He squawked, reminding Seifer even more of an enraged chicken. **

** Seifer made sure to arch one of his perfect eyebrows. "What, I'm not allowed to perform simple upkeep on my weapon?" He made sure that he didn't have enough water before scraping the honing stone over Hyperion's blade. **

** It was pretty funny watching Zell wince and twitch at the noise. "Use more water!" He finally managed to squeeze out, looking pained. **

** "But shouldn't be conserving our water since you lost the key to get us out?" Seifer made sure to drag out the noise by dragging his blade slowly over the stone. **

** Zell's face spasmed and Seifer half-way hoped that he had pushed the stocky little fighter too far. Then Zell could punch him and Seifer could use the guilt that Zell would feel for losing control against him. Maybe he could even get some of Zell's ma's cookies out of the deal… **

** "I need to _concentrate_, asshat!" Bright blue eyes fumed. "An' you'd better do somethin' QUIET over there or I really _am_ gunna blow us up! An' don't tell me I was gunna anyhow!" Zell snapped, bouncing angrily. "I'm WAY better at this shit than you are, so shut up!" **

** Seifer mockingly saluted, a little disappointed. Zell had matured and no longer would leap into fights just to prove himself. Seifer had to work to provoke the shrimp into one now and it pissed the gunblader off. **

** He'd never admit, but Seifer missed the physical altercations between them. Zell had always been a good fighter and some days, proved to be a better challenge than Squall. **

** And since little Mr Princess was too busy playing Headmaster of the Garden these days, the only challenge that remained was Zell. **

** But ever since the War, the little fucker had gotten promoted and felt it was his 'duty' or some such shit to act the part. It was harder than ever to get a reaction and Zell seemed bent on being 'professional' or whatever. The backbone he had grown was equally amusing as it was annoying. Zell was pretty damn cute when he tried to be assertive. **

** There was a exclamation from Zell and suddenly, the lights went out. **

** "I have good news and bad news," Zell finally said a few moments later. **

** "Do I even want to know?" Seifer grumbled. **

** The smaller man ignored him. "The good news is that I deactivated the bomb. The bad news is all the power was runnin' through the bomb and wit' it deactivated, there isn't any power runnin' to anythin' else now." **

** Seifer started to clap, a slow and sarcastic echo in the room. He could _hear_ Zell puff up in anger. "Knock that off!" **

** "Do you think we'll dehydrate or freeze first?" Seifer drawled out, addressing the point where he thought the Chicken Wuss was. **

** "Ain't funny!" The little fighter squawked. "An' we ain't gunna die here! They'll notice when we don't get back right away an' then Squall'll send—" **

** Seifer snorted loudly. "Yeah, right. His fucktoy isn't in here." **

** "Don't call her that!" Zell snarled. "An' Squall _will_ send help 'cuz he's not only my friend, he's a good leader!" **

** _Unlike you_. **

** Seifer felt the words bearing down on him and lashed out to get them to go away. "You're right, he'll probably send help because he'd hate to lose his fool!" **

** The words didn't go away, still circling him and hissing as he vaguely heard Zell let out a yelp of rage. He needed to push the words away, push his failures back to where they belonged. **

** Zell was still ranting and it was distracting. "Shut the fuck up, Chicken Wuss!" **

** Much to his surprise, it worked. **

** "Hey man, you okay?" Zell sounded actually concerned when he spoke a few seconds later. **

** "I'm _fine_." **

** "No need to bite my head off," the other man grumbled, not managing to completely hide all of the hurt. His ridiculous red shoes squeaked slightly as he shuffled his feet. **

** Seifer decided that he was going to ignore and work on keeping his breathing steady. Doctor Kadowaki was going to have a heyday with this one once the stupid cluck blabbed it out to Squall. This could give her the fodder she'd wanted to get them to force him into a shrink's office. They'd been trying ever since they dragged him back to the Garden and he'd managed to escape it so far— **

** He froze. **

** There was the sounds of Zell shadow-boxing and the sounds of his breathing and… **

** "Chicken Wuss! Stop moving for a damn second!" **

** There was a huffing noise, but at least the idiot stopped moving and he heard it again—the faintest dry rustling. He swore and ripped out Hyperion at the same time Zell hissed out a curse. **

** "Cast a firaga spell!" Seifer swept his gunblade in a small circle, praying he wouldn't hit the other blond. **

** "I don't have one!" Zell snapped back. "Shut your eyes for a sec!" **

** The brilliant flash of light from the flare spell cast would have certainly blinded Seifer had he disobeyed the order. The lingering effects were enough to see by. **

** Not that seeing was all that better. **

** Creeps crowded the room. Zell backed up and Seifer spun, trying not to swing at anything until the fighter was out of the way. **

** "Fuck," Zell muttered. "Why does this always happen to me?" He glanced over. "I only got Quezacotl and I ain't calling him up when we've got a bomb in th' power source, not ta mention th' bastards won't feel a thin'." **

** "Then we do it the old-fashioned way." Seifer cut a line through the encroaching creeps. This was one battle that was going to a nightmare. **

** The creeps keep coming and Seifer thought his arm might fall off at any given second. Zell even looked like he was slowing down and still more of the shadowy things would replace the dead ones. **

** "Man…_where_…are…they…comin'…from?!" Zell gasped out, smashing his fist forwards. **

** "You know…I…don't…hate… you," Seifer grunted as he swung his increasingly heavy weapon. **

** Zell—_ever_ the moron—actually stopped fighting and stared at him. **

** "Watch it!" Seifer snarled, barely managing to slice off the arm of one that threatened to get Zell. "Pay…fuckin'…_attention_!" **

** Zell glared at him, but a sharp explosion on the other side of the room shook the floor, distracting both of them. **

** Momentarily blinded and bleeding from the shrapnel, Seifer was unprepared for the sudden rumbling _boom._ He rapidly blinked his eyes to see what the hell had just happened. **

** Dead creeps littered the floor, the glimmer of a holy spell still flitting over them. Quistis stood near the hole, eyebrows arched slightly. Irving peered over her shoulder. "Are they in there?" **

** "Irving!" Zell somehow found the energy to bounce out from behind Seifer. "I knew somebody'd be here soon!" **

** "The world must be ending; you were right." Seifer grumbled as he started to pick his way across the room. He wasn't staying in this hellhole any longer than he had to. **

** Already, Zell was babbling about the details of the mission and Seifer rolled his eyes. He could feel the world returning to the way it had been before. **

** Lucky h—why was Zell telling Quistis that Seifer had saved his butt? **

** "_Totally_ would've been toast wit'out 'im!" Zell said loudly. "Could never of done myself." **

** Ignoring the swell of pride, Seifer made sure to smirk. "You're right, you are one dumb cluck." **

** Quistis glared at him, but much to everyone's surprise, Zell simply cuffed the gunblader's arm and continued on with his story. **

** For the first time they had dragged him back to the Garden, Seifer felt like he belonged. **

**_x Fin x _**


End file.
